nature of life. He also started going to encounter groups. For five months, he sat in a group for eight hours a day, two days a week. He would lead a group, sit- ting on the floor, for two hours, then watch a group for two hours, then be in a group for two hours, and then critique the groups for two hours. The sessions involved insults, tears, and tense, miser- able silences. Goldsmith loved every .I minute. Even now, memories of the days in which he would torment the .I people in his charge make him giggle happily. "They'd say, 'What the hell am I here for?' "he recalls. "I'd say; 'What do you want to be here for?' I'd say, 'How do you feel right now?' They'd say, 'I'm pissed off because you won't tell me something.' So I'd say, 'Why do you want me to tell you what to do?' " From his experience with encounter groups he learned two lessons that would prove useful in his subsequent career: people are made extremely anx- ious by unstructured environments, and unexpurgated, face-to-face honesty is not usually helpful in business. "If you're with a bunch of strangers, you really learn how yOU come across to .I .I people," he says. "It's like, My God, these people think I'm an ass! And everybody thought you were an ass be- fore but nobody told you. On the other .I .I hand, they tried encounter groups in hospitals with doctors and nurses- total disaster. One person would say, 'How do yOU feel about me?' and some- .I one would tell him, 'I hate your guts, you're an arrogant jerk.' It can be very dvsfunctional." .I In a sense, though, 360 0 feedback is the direct descendant of encounter groups. The basic idea is the same: the sudden, shocking revelation of what everyone really thinks of you jolts you into becoming a humbler, wiser person who doesn't act like an ass. The differ- ence is that the 360s are not enlisted for recreational self-improvement. Now hu- mility; self-knowledge, and sensitivity are business assets. T he chief financial officer sat at a small, round table in the conference room next to his office. It was the end of the day, it had grown dark outside, and the C.F:O.'s skin was pale and flat under the fluorescent light. He was nearly f1fty, thin and grave, and his hair was be- ginning to gray: He had an air about him so distant and introverted that it seemed as though the muscles of his face were being operated by remote control. He was dressed, like everyone in his company, in business casual-in his case, a light- green oxford shirt and a pair of khakis. Two years ago, ,at the start of his training, the C.F:O. had stood accused of acting superior, not listening, not treating people with respect, and in gen- eral failing to adjust gracefully to the corporate culture. He had spent most of his career on the East Coast at comparues in which the expression of flamboyantly hostile opinions was as normal as saying hello. Then, just over three years ago, he was appointed to his current job, in a large Midwestern corporation where everyone was nice to his face but gos- siped endlessly behind his back, and be- fore long he found himself so thor- ougWy entangled in resentment and ill will that his C.E.O. decided that only .I Marshall Goldsmith could extract him. The C.F:O. had had a coach before, but that coach had been a touchv-feelv .I .I kind of coach who wanted to probe the C.F:O.'s psyche and figure out why he was doing the things he did. Goldsmith, the C.F:O. had found to his relief when they started working together, was utterly uninterested in whv: This session was the .I C.F.O.'s last. Mter a dozen meetings with Goldsmith, his training was com- plete and his 360s indicated that he was a changed man. "Let's get rolling," Goldsmith said. "Here's your feedback report. Treats peo- ple with respect? Excellent, only two people gave you a zero." Zero meant no change. "Acting arrogant and superior? Only two negatives out of twenty-six." Goldsmith leafed through bar graphs he had drawn up to represent these figures, and found a page of longer comments. "Want to start with the positives or the negatives?" he asked. THOS. MOSER CABINETMAKERS .;.: .:,;- ,,; ,:: : 'l ] "" , "if<" " : :":';;';::': i::: :;" l: J ":;:.;:.:::;:.,.. .-:... ." ''; , ' : . ' :.i:r: f 'N ,J , 'i " , 1> '% , , , 'f 'Ii } : ; :'.i' .:.; . < .:.' ..;" : , : ;,mt 'r ' ......: , ,.." B ..;j " ,'i, , Introducing the new Af'\rRICAN BUNGALOW <: 0 Ii Ii (T 0 N Call or visit our website for a free catalog: 800-708-9045 Charleston. Chicago. Freeport. New York. San Francisco www.thosmoser.com CRAMER MAY CHOMP A STOGIE BUT THIS COP'S NO STOOGE. . . ) . , :>:... J ..J, .J ' J _ I r ..J ... -! --' -l 2J iJb \ r, \...: r -l ,.... . r !)JJ j I J ( (( 1 1J hand woven collars www.tailwags.com a tail we could wag 866,726,WAGS' . 6 Million Pieces! China, Crystal, Silver, Collectibles Q ;Z\æ ; :L . - I-BOO-REPlACE (1-800-""3""-5223) PO Box 26029, Grecnsburo,NC 27420. DeptYO www.replacements.com THE NEW YORKER, APRIL 22 & 29, 2002 135